Well we did it. And now we are officially 100% retired from dragon boat. It was quite an experience, I wouldn't necessarily say a good experience, but we did it. We raced, we dressed like idiots and danced on stage, and then we went home.
We head down to the beach at 7 am and got dressed and pumped with out team of 40 or so people. We got really sweet butt padded shorts that neither Paul or I (or most of the team) could button up, and cool team shirts, and come 10:30 it was race time. We were in the first race for our team, the B squad, and we paddled out and raced against 12 other boats. Our team messed up the start a bit and we were never able to recover. 10 out of 13 ain't bad..... But Paul and I felt we both did our best and were able to keep in sync.
The weather turned out to be beautiful!!!! Perfect blue skies, and hot hot hot sun.
Post our race we all went back to the 'house' we rented to change into our InterNations costumes for the craziest outfit parade. Some of these teams go nuts. There were Gladiators and Avengers, and then us in our blue wigs and flags. It was fun, but not totally my cup of tea.
Finally we were able to get back to the house at 2 to each lunch, the first meal of the day. We were with a German team, so the food was German, and quite good, but we had to rush it as another race was coming up.
There were 60 races with 13 teams in each. That's a lot of teams. Our second race InterNations kicked ass. This was the A squad. The people that dedicated every weekend (and more) to practice and fundraising. And they did themselves reallllll proud; First Place!!! They smoked all of the other teams by at least 1/2 a boat length which is huge in a 1:20 race. I was especially proud of Nicole, our coach. She worked so hard and I'm so glad she pulled out a win.
We head back to the house where those of us who were finished racing enjoyed a beer. Then the team head back to the beach for the third and final race for the Gold Cup. Paul and I decided that if we wanted to get home in less than 4 hours (there were probably three million people in STanley and only one road in and out) we should leave now before the crowd. So we have no idea how our team did in the end, yet we learned a valuable lesson. Dragon boating ain't for everyone.
The weather turned out to be beautiful!!!! Perfect blue skies, and hot hot hot sun.
Post our race we all went back to the 'house' we rented to change into our InterNations costumes for the craziest outfit parade. Some of these teams go nuts. There were Gladiators and Avengers, and then us in our blue wigs and flags. It was fun, but not totally my cup of tea.
There were 60 races with 13 teams in each. That's a lot of teams. Our second race InterNations kicked ass. This was the A squad. The people that dedicated every weekend (and more) to practice and fundraising. And they did themselves reallllll proud; First Place!!! They smoked all of the other teams by at least 1/2 a boat length which is huge in a 1:20 race. I was especially proud of Nicole, our coach. She worked so hard and I'm so glad she pulled out a win.
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| Stanley early AM. Come noon it was packed! |
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